Passwords and Pizza
by Scarabbug
Summary: Most people don’t realise it looking at her, but Helen is no stranger to the sensation of rage. Mid Metarex Saga, Helen waits for her friend to return.


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This was originally a part of the Sonic Symphony Collection, but I'm such a fan of the humans, that I decided to give it it's own section.

**I have a Danny/Helen shipper in me that I let out whenever I feel like going against the established almost-canon. I am comfortable with this. **

**Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit are both appreciated. **

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**Passwords and Pizza. **

Her first reaction had been anger, she supposes.

Which is understandable enough. Most people don't realise it looking at her, but Helen is no stranger to the sensation of rage. She knows frustration from the pitying looks she'd gotten as a child being pushed around by her parents (so much so that these days, there are only a few, select people whom she will allow at the handlebars). She knows how it feels to want to punch and scream at her own body for not working properly. She understands bitterness ("_All because of some stupid accident..._") envy ("_She looks so pretty, walking around in those lovely high heels._..") and pain ("_Oh, god not my injection-month_ again_, you'd think the lack of sensation would let me get away with_ that _at least..._"). Anger towards _others_, however, is something she is less familiar with.

Soon enough though, the anger faded and was replaced with anxiety about their current circumstance. She started trying to reach a rational understanding of what he had done and why. But there's only one that she can think of, and the idea of it being true is an even less comfortable feeling than anger.

Even though the sun set hours ago, the only artificial lighting in the room is coming from the screens of several dim computers scattered around her. The shape of the portal hangs like a black halo in the darkness. They'd fought about it earlier: the three of them gathered around the gateway, confused and lost amidst a bunch of software and hardware that only Chris really understood.

'_So. So let's just say that something's... _gone wrong_, here...' _

Danny is the only one amongst them who will voice these kind of things lately. He probably sees it as his duty to be the rational, sensible one, since Helen –the usual candidate for that role– is otherwise occupied by the painful knots that are curdling in her stomach and Francis... well... Francis is Francis.

'_If something's gone wrong, then... what do we do?'_

'_Nothing's gone _wrong_, Danny. The machinery... I mean, it _looks_ totally fine, if something were the matter with it it'd be smoking or giving out error messages, right?' _

'_Well what does that mean to us, exactly? Helen's the only one who gets all this technical stuff and we can't even get into Chris's software so that she can tell us whether something's the matter with it. He's locked us out of _everything_. Why did he do that? Why would he cut us out that way?'_

Helen keeps gazing up at the empty frame of the portal as if expecting answers from it at any moment. Danny is... right to be confused, she supposes. After all, they'd promised that they would go to Sonic's world together. At their Graduation Ceremony, no less. They'd _promised_.

'_Maybe he didn't mean to cut us out. You know what he's like, Danny; he's a _Thorndyke_. He gets so wrapped up in what he's doing that he forgets everything that's going on around him.'_

'_Yeah so it wouldn't be too odd for him to do something like this, would it? I know it's not what any of us wanna hear, but I think the reason Chris did this alone is because the portal wasn't completely ready; he wasn't sure whether it was safe or not, so he decided to be his own damn guinea pig.' _

'_That doesn't mean it didn't _work_.' _

'_Then _why_ didn't he come back for us?' _

'_Danny, don't talk like he's... Just don't _talk_ like that!' _

'_Hey, I'm just asking the serious questions, Francis. I don't like what the answers might be anymore than you do. If Chris did get to Sonic's world in one piece, then why hasn't he contacted us yet? And if he _didn't_ get there...'_

Francis didn't have any answers for him then.

'...Maybe he just forgot about us.' Helen whispers into the shadows, vaguely expecting them to reply.

She'd said that to them then, and it had earned her two uneasy glances. She doesn't blame them. Neither of them understands quite as well as she does, just what it's like to run with Sonic... How everything –_everything_– that you could possibly worry about goes away all at once, from the anger of attacking military men to the numbness in your legs. With Sonic; being _around_ Sonic... his boundless energy just seemed to rub off on you. It'd be fairly easy, Helen thinks, for Chris to forget just what he'd left behind once he was there.

Assuming that he got there.

'He _did_ get there, right?' She whispers, not feeling entirely certain who she's asking.

'You're still thinking he forgot about you, huh?'

Danny, standing at her shoulder in the darkness. Helen has no idea how he got so close without her noticing, but he has, and now he's standing by her wheelchair gazing up at the dark halo of the portal. '...Danny, shouldn't you be at home?'

'I... yeah, I guess I should.' Danny shrugs, rubbing the back of his head the way he does when nervous. 'I wanted to apologise, though. About before. I didn't mean to upset you. _Either_ of you.'

Helen smiles faintly. 'I'm sure Francis made her displeasure more than obvious. But you didn't do anything wrong, all the same. You were just saying what we were all concerned about.'

'I know, but...' Danny breathes out hard, as if he's been holding it in for a while. 'I just figured we should look at the worst case scenario here, you know? What Chris was doing here is some _really_ big stuff. You know that better than any of us, don't you? You know the risks involved.'

'And so did he,' Helen says, softly. 'That's good enough for me.' Danny doesn't look convinced. 'I'm serious, Danny. I'm sure that Chris is okay, I just don't totally understand... why he didn't come back to us, like he promised.'

Danny pauses for a second, reaching out to brush the edge of the portal with his fingertips –gingerly, the way he always does; almost like he's afraid to touch it. It's quite strange to see. Danny's hands are almost the opposite of Chris's –strong and rough skinned, designed for hitting things really hard rather than tapping at the keys of a laptop at one-hundred wpm. It's almost funny to see him using them so delicately.

'Well... maybe he's just stuck there for a little while. He _did_ use a lot of power to get this thing working, right? He had to find a power source that matched Chaos Control. I'm no scientist, but even _I _know that's one heckuva lot of energy. Maybe he just... hasn't found out how to get back yet.'

'But Sonic has Chaos Control, doesn't he?' Helen says. 'He could bring Chris home at any time; all Chris would have to do is _ask_.' Helen picks at the loose stuffing in one corner of her chair cushion. She needs a new one. This old thing is all worn out. Kind of like her temper. She's tired of being angry and afraid and impatient. It's not like they know for sure that Chris is in trouble, after all. It's not like she should be wasting her whole night here, trying to decode a password that they've already tried to get through a hundred times or more.

And even if they _do_ break the code, what will that show them?

Helen sighs. 'Urgh. I guess I must look a little pathetic, huh? _Me_, Helen Percival, stuck waiting around for some... _boy_.'

'Nah. Not just _some_ boy. But it _is_ kinda silly, huh?' Danny rubs her shoulder. 'You know he wouldn't forget about you, Helen. Not ever. Not _you_. And even if he is having a great time –which he probably is– he wouldn't let that stop him from getting us there with him. Not if he could help it. There's got to be another reason why he hasn't contacted us.'

'I know.'

'You don't _sound_ as if you know.'

'Maybe not, but... I do,' Helen reaches back to squeeze Danny's hand.

She almost believes what she's saying. Almost. It's quite likely, of course, that Chris has gone and gotten himself into some kind of trouble, if not killed outright. More likely still that the portal just didn't work the way it was supposed to and Chris's atoms ended up scattered between the worlds, like so much inter-dimensional dust.

Chris is smart; Helen knows that. But is he smart enough to outwit Chaos Control?

'Pizza.' Danny says suddenly and Helen blinks in surprise.

'I'm sorry, what?'

'I'm hungry,' Danny says, turning away from the portal and smiling at her. 'Let's go get pizza. You know. Bread base, cheese, pepperoni... What do you say we quit worrying about our personal boy wonder for a while and go hang out? I'm pretty sure he won't mind. He gets to hog _Sonic_ while he's there, after all. Ah... no pun intended.'

Helen giggles anyway and feels her face breaking into an only-somewhat-reluctant smirk. 'Okay, okay; skip the pepperoni and you've got a deal on that pizza.'

Danny whistles dramatically through his teeth. 'Picky eater, huh? Okay, cool. I can handle that. We'll get ham and pineapple instead.'

'_Pineapple_?' Helen mock-gagged. 'Yuck, that's a _fruit_!'

'So are tomatoes and I don't see you complaining about _them_ on your pizza!'

'Yeah, but the tomato has a wide range of uses. Who on _earth_ thought a spiky pineapple fruit would work well on a _bread base_?'

'Who thought of... _Who_ thought of putting pineapple on pizza?!' Danny gasps, taking hold of her chair handles, as so few people are permitted to do, and turning her around to face the elevator. 'A genius, that's who, Helen Percival! A genius, with excellent taste.'

...Neither of them are going to think about the Worst Case Scenarios right now.

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ACCESSING CHAOS-SIMULATION POWER GRID

ACTIVIATING POWER FLOW

THORNDYKE SECURITY CODE: LEVEL ONE REQUIRED FOR FURTHER ACTIVITY

ENTER CODE:

"**H-E-L-E-N"**

...

PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

STAND CLEAR FOR LEVEL ONE PORTAL ACTIVATION. COUNTDOWN IN TEN. NINE. EIGHT...

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"_Leave me out with the waste; this is not what I do,_

_It's the wrong kind of place to be thinking of you_

_It's the wrong time for somebody new,_

_It's a small crime, and I've got no excuse..." _-Damien Rice, 9 Crimes.


End file.
